I want to paint my entire house..

[NotAMamaYet]

WHITE

does anyone have experience in doing this - do we go bog standard white emulsion, or pay slightly more for an (dare I say it) off white ??

Scared if we just go 'brilliant' white things will look too clinical...?

House isn't huge, we're putting down wood flooring if that helps

T.I.A

If you want absolute white I suggest start with Zinsser B-I-N and that will cover every stain, mark, tint, odour.

Then paint with emulsion on walls and satin on wood.

Zinsser make various paint products that stop stains and prime. Look at the product list on their website.

Just one word of warning. I lived in a white house with wood floors. It was fine in summer but winter is was cold and soulless. You need ultra modern furniture and a lot of art works.

Thanks for the reply, great to have some insight.

So yours is just a white emulsion? And it doesn't look to much?

My boyfriend is luckily enough to have travelled a fair bit so we have got a nice selection of art works - we're thinking modern with a more homely twist though. Scandi is so overdone nowadays (imo) but that's the basis....

We rented our 'white' houses quite a few years ago.

One was a 1930s semi with quite cheap laminate floors and light tan carpets upstairs. The walls were a very light cream not pure white. Not too big but had big had nice patio doors straight out on to a garden and we have ultra modern furniture. It looked great when the landlord had his estate agent take photos just before it was sold. We had blinds at windows and sort of translucent curtains. I actually quite enjoyed that house.

Some years later we rented a larger Georgian house. It had big rooms and high ceilings. The landlord had painted every wall and ceiling pure white. Natural wood floors downstairs and light tan carpets upstairs. It felt cold and unwelcoming in winter. Strangely felt quite drab even though it was pure white. Summer was nice but winter felt grim.

Our house now we have painted coloured walls everywhere. Vey bright colours with white woodwork and ceilings.

Consider if the white is right for the light (natural or artificial or both). If using one white throughout, it may look different in each location depending on accompanying light.

All of the community spaces in our house, (save the kitchen, which is sky blue in color(, and painted in an slightly off-white color.

The kids chose their own room colors.

I think the white looks amazing, but we do have a bunch of modern art in the walls and some very colorful mid-century modern furniture. I think BetaDad was right on in his remarks.

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Thanks for the replies - given me plenty to think about

My house is a 70/80s semi, not huge but pretty spacious for the house type and it's layout is nice

Interesting about how the white appears different in different lights and rooms

In my experience off whites look better. White emulsion often looks cold and grey in the Great British weather.

Just want to echo the zinnser BIN recommendation. It's shellac so if you're using a spray gun be really careful about ventilation. I speak from scary experience.

Thanks, I'll definitely look into that under coat...

Hope your experience with it wasn't too bad carbs !!

Anyone got any suggestions of an off white that works? Heard that Dulux does a few nice off whites....

I have Dulux Timeless throughout the house. It picks up other colours from the room so each room looks different.

Op we did entire house over 3 weeks white. A slightly more durable basic white in the hallway and we were daring through the lounge.... with Dulux Just Walnut. It is gorgeous don't be out of by name. It's a very gentle grey with no blue undertones. Love it.

I love the starkness of our white walls and dark floors.

I know there is a lot of F&B resistance here, but we used Wimbourne White very successfully on the whole upstairs of a very large Victorian house with wooden floors. Lovely.

I painted my first house brilliant white everywhere. 1940's semi. It worked well and was nice in both summer and winter but it does require artwork & textiles to make it work. I had some huge canvases (I painted) which gave bold splashes of colour in some rooms but my bedroom was white all over, and was warmed up with lots of white linens, rugs and curtains (different textures) and beautiful lighting.

My old house was like this. As a pp said, it looked effective as we have bold furniture/ furnishings and lots of art on the walls. We used different whites in different rooms depending on whether n/e/s/w facing. I can't remember all of them, but Little Greene slaked lime and dulux cameo silk 2 featured heavily. We had crown gallery white in our north facing bedroom paired with a deep inky blue on one wall (we had other colours in the bedrooms only). Crown Sail white was in another room. We're having more colour in our current house but I'm using dulux timeless in the hallways and I would say that it is definitely cream and not white in all but very bright light. As is wimborne white to my eye. Wimborne white is a very useful colour (unites true and warm greys well for example, also blues with warmer schemes) but I am a F&B hater (sorry) so would recommend Little Greene Linen Wash or Shirting, which are v similar with Shirting being the brighter white of the two.

Look at the Light reflectance value of any paint you buy, on dulux colour codes this is the second number (the first indicates where on the colour wheel it lies, the third is the level of saturation). Little Greene publish theirs on their website. Anything in the high 80s will read as a bright white, but could look dingy in low light. lower 80s you will see a hint of colour, more in low light. Anything in the 70s is a pale colour, not a white. I could bore on about this all night but will stop myself there.

Zinsser bin is likely overkill unless you're hiding damp marks or painting over a glossy finish. Plus you'll be high off the fumes painting whole walls in it. If you're walls are in decent condition, you'll be fine with a water based primer ir even just watered down white emulsion.

In our case, we used the same off-white everywhere, because it was easy to remember. I can't be bothered to remember which shade of white is in which area.

I tested 14 shades, though, before choosing the one we used.

My current house is entirely white, but sadly crown water based trade white due to letting the plaster dry.

I find it too brilliant if I'm honest as my previous house was all white, but I'd found my perfect one, Contemporay by Homebase. I'll be using it again here.

Our shortlist for our white hallway was Sail White (Crown IIRC) and Timeless. Sail white was the whiter of the two. It was a few years back and I know Timeless is everywhere, but they were the 2 we picked out. It totally depends on the light though, you really do just have to try them in your own house.

I tried F&B strong white in our very dingy hall and it just looked white to me, but I've read on here that it's not white at all.

I think whether you consider something white, off-white or cream depends very much on the rest of your house. I can well believe that in Tremolo's white house, Timeless look cream. But in ours, which was full of Natural Hessian and Natural Calico at the time, it looked pretty white.

Avoid Pure Brilliant White - too bluey/harsh.

We painted our whole house with this www.crowntrade.co.uk/product/interior-products/crown-trade-clean-extreme-scrubbable-matt/ White without the blue bits in. I love it.

Another vote for Timeless! We have dulux antique map in the hall and f&b corn forth grey in sititng/dining room, really gone off them but still lurve the timeless. It does seem to look different in every room while still tying it all together.

I used Dulux Jasmine White as it had been recommended on here before and I love it, its in between white and magnolia. Here are some pics - two taken in natural light and one at night with a ceiling light on so you can see how it looks.

I'm a builders white ceiling and timeless walls kinda girl. Need to work on the colourful art work though as it's a bit sterile (although the nerf guns everywhere gives a bit of colour).